By Madina Toure
At least 55 residents weighed in on the state of the Flushing Meadows Corona Park at a community forum at the Queens Museum over the weekend.
The forum, held at the museum Sunday, gave residents the opportunity to provide input on ways to improve the park as part of a project that the nonprofit Design Trust for Public Space, in conjunction with the Queens Museum and the city Department of Parks and Recreation, is working on to improve the access, circulation and connectivity of the park. Community advisers presented preliminary design concepts for feedback.
The project’s goal is to better engage community members in the planning design and management of the park.
“It was inspiring to see the creative process of our community advisers in developing a diverse set of design concepts for the park’s enhancement, and the great attention from the public at this first community forum,” Susan Chin, Design Trust’s executive director, said in a statement.
Janice Melnick, the park’s administrator, said it was a good opportunity for the community to come out and voice their opinions.
“I thought it was great,” Melnick said. “The snow probably kept some people away, but the people who came were really enthusiastic and interested in the project and what was being presented.”
The forum consisted of four groups focusing on the themes of access, navigation, learning and opportunity.
Last spring, Design Trust requested projects for what it named “The Energetic City: Connectivity in the Public Realm.” The nonprofit had more than 90 expressions of interest but boiled it down to four projects.
The winning project was a proposal from the Queens Museum and the city Department of Parks and Recreation called “The World’s Park: Reconnecting a Regional Park with its Neighbors.”
The access team proposed “The Green Thing,” a collection of vegetated way finding arrows that would lead people into the park and “Art-trances,” art installations that would mark the entrances.
The navigation team suggested multilingual welcome maps to be positioned in or near entrances to the park and a creative signage system that would pair existing place names with bold symbols.
The learning team called for a multilingual GPS-based smartphone application that would alert a passerby to major points of interest by tagging upcoming events at those specific locations.
The opportunity team proposed the “Sensory Space Playground for All Children,” a play area targeting the five senses that would be created in underused open space buildings in the park.
Jean Silba, president of the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Conservancy, said people’s suggestions included making the entrances more visible, better signage in the park and directions for people who are walking as opposed to driving.
“The whole thing was to give an update to the public so the public could see what we’re doing and spark something in their brain,” Silba said.
Anandi Premlall, founder of Sustainable Queens, who is one of 23 community advisers, was on the opportunity team. She said members of her group noted that the setup of the park is not conducive to seniors and people with mobility.
“When you come off any mode of transit in that area, there’s at least a 15-minute walk from transportation to the park or museum in that area,” Premlall said. “Someone who has limited access might find that a little difficult to maneuver.”
Premlall said the residents seemed happy to be included in the conversation and that it has helped her to become aware of other issues pertaining to the park.
“I definitely think this is one of the more inclusive ways in which development has been happening around that area,” she said.
Final design concepts will be exhibited at the Queens Museum from April to May 3.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
